An Introduction to the Environmental Physics of Soil, Water and Watersheds

Abstract

An Introduction to the Environmental Physics of Soil, Water and Watersheds presents an easy approach to understanding physical processes associated with the land surface and subsurface water and energy balance, with a brief treatment of transport. The book begins with a treatment of soil, its formation and composition, and properties associated with soil strength and characterization with moisture. Next is a description of the properties of liquids wherein concepts such as pressure, energy, buoyancy, and waves are addressed. This is followed by the treatment of evapotranspiration and infiltration. The book then discusses overland flow, erosion and deposition, and transport by rivers. The behavior of flow in the subsurface, namely, saturated and unsaturated flow and contaminant transport, completes the book.